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You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them Geesy Bundy, Dahmer.
The Nightstalker DTK.
Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zupanski, Good Evening.
Greed, arrogance, and lust led Robert Anderson to kill his wife of nearly twenty years. He was a pillar of the community. He owned four service Master franchises. He was a Kiwanist member and former president, and a former teacher and athletic director at Salem High scho The combination of his love for money and infatuation with a younger girl led him to the brutal beating of his wife and
subsequent attempt to frame an employee and former student. The death of his wife in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was considered an extreme act of rage and was initially attributed to the violence that was pervasive in the city at the time. The homicide was subsequently compared to the murder of Carol Stewart by her husband Charles Stewart five years earlier in Boston. That Stuart murder was also initially attributed to the violence of the city. Follow investigators from three agencies as they
followed the evidence and tracked their quarry. In the end, justice reigned. The book they were featuring this evening is Murder Outside the back Door, The true story of the murder of a popular Salem, New Hampshire teacher by her husband, the murder labeled as a Charles Stewart copycat. With my special guest author John Tumasi.
Dan, how you doing and thanks for having me. I enjoyed his podas, thank you so much for joining me with this Murder.
Outside the back Door. Let's get right to this. February fourth, nineteen eighty four. Detective Phillips and the Salem is at the Salem Police Department, and so Andrew McGregor, his wife Linda, and daughter Cindy are there concerning an assault by a person named Robert Anderson. Tell us about what happens that day. What they tell Detective Phillips, Well.
Cindy McGregor was a cheerleader at Central Catholic and they said that Robert Anderson, the athletic director. He also taught Jim Classes approached Cindy McGregor in the locker room and essentially assaulted her by starting to fondle her, and it was definitely unwanted, and Cindy pushed him away and she went home told her parents, and her parents.
Came right to the police station. Now they have to speak to this Robert Anderson. So what does Robert Anderson do when he's asked about these allegations.
He denied everything. He said, no, this didn't happen. You know, I did talk to her initially from outside the door of the girl's lock of rom across his office was in close proximity. And again he just continued to deny everything.
Now, what does Cindy and her parents offer to do, because they're adamant that Cindy is telling the truth and they want the charges to be laid.
Potentially, she agreed to take a polygraph and it wasn't Detective Phillips who brought it up. It was the family and she passed two polygraphs. And Cindy McGregor is known to me. She had married my cousin, Tim Brady a couple of years later, and Tim Brady is the boyfriend that was mentioned in the book later on.
Now she passes this second polygraph, and this second polygraph is asked for by the attorney for Robert Anderson as an independent poul graphic examiner. So she passes that test.
So police do what.
In terms of a warrant and arrest, Well, they put out a warrant for his arrest. And Robert Anderson was a very highly respected individual in the community. He was a member of the Kawanas. He eventually became president of the Kawanas. And now they wanted to handle him with kid gloves. But as the saying goes, no one is above the law. So he turned himself in with his lawyer, John McCool after the warrant was issued for his arrest. It's very interesting there was a petition signed by about
four hundred students. What was this petition and what was it detailing.
What it said was they're not saying whether he was guilty or an ascent that they were in support of him. A lot of the students loved him. He hired one or two of his students at Serve Master for latter years. But no, essentially it came out in support and was published in the local newspaper, the Salem Observer. Now there's a three day trial for him with judge.
Only interesting aspect of that is the it's unusual for a defendant to take the stand. You talk about Anderson taking the stand at this trial. And then the verdict in this three day trial.
Yeah, the verdict was not guilty. It was moved. There was a change of venue to Hampton Beach. Judge Frager very highly respected and he would be what you call the cops judge. He was more conservative and if someone assaulted the police officer, there's a good chance they were going to jail. But after the jury trial, the reason why Anderson didn't want to have a jury trial, and I spoke to John McCool afterwards, was they were worried that he may the jury may sympathize with McGregor family,
so they felt that they the Anderson team. When John McCool felt that the state didn't have enough to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Part of the reason of the reasonable day out was friend a longtime friend of Robert and also of the couple he and his wife, as well a person named Ray Corlis, basically gay. Some very damning testimony or support of Robert Anderson.
Yeah, that is true. Supposedly, Tim Brady, Cindy's boyfriend, went to talk to Anderson and said, hey, listen, what can we do to make this go away. Now, there's no doubt in my mind that didn't happen, because again, Tim Brady's my cousin, I know him very well. So Anderson got his friend who also happened to work for Anderson. Anderson was his direct boss, and he testified that, Yeah,
I heard Tim Brady say that to h Anderson. And again I think that was made up because what I say a lot of time in my books is the best judge of future behavior is past behavior. A number of years later, Anderson was also accused of an assault, and he tried to get one of his employees to say that that never happened. But she eventually told me doing police the next town over, that Anderson put her up to do it. So I think that Anderson put his subordinate up to doing it.
You write about Robert's wife and her name is Amy, and she's supportive of him and thinks that this woman has put them through personal hell.
Amy said that, yet this girl put my husband through how she stood behind her. Amy was an extremely popular English teacher at Salem High and they loved her. As a matter of fact, she had attended Salem High before she went to college, and she got voted Miss Salem High. She was a beautiful woman both inside and out. She very much stood behind Anderson when this was happening.
You mentioned that in the beginning, when before this sexual assault charge came up, he was being considered as a principal of Merrimack High. But after this he was not in consideration, and he retired and went into the cleaning business and purchased eventually for service Master franchises.
That is correct. The Salem High School conducted their own internal investigation, and they told no one the results of that investigation that I am aware of. But he retired from teaching and being the athletic director at the end of that school year, and he never never got the job and as principal of the other high school.
Now you right about and as we mentioned in the synopsis, was about Charles Stewart. This is October twenty third, nineteen eighty nine, and there's the dispatcher here is I need help. My wife's been shot. Tell us about Charles Stewart and what happens October twenty third, nineteen eighty nine.
Charles Stuart was allegedly having an affair with one of his help He worked in Boston at a well in Boston, a well known furrier on a Newbury Street and Mike Anderson.
Stuart was very concerned with money. His wife was eight months pregnant and they had gone to a birthing class at Peter Brigham Hospital and on the way back, he said he was accosted by a black man in Boston who shot him in the stomach and shot his wife and she died within twenty four hours. But one of the things he really didn't want to have a child's child Stewit didn't really want to have a child because his wife, who was a very successful tax attorney, would
have lost her income. Was I know FLMA at the time.
You talk about also that there was a brave and courageous emergency cesarean performed and the baby boy was delivered eight weeks premature. However, that baby only lived for seventeen days and suffering from auction to deprivation in the womb.
Yeah, that's correct, that it was really tragic and the mother and baby boy were buried together, and the baby boy the parents took her name on the gravestone. They want nothing to do with childs, do it now?
You talk about this, he says that there's a black man and raspy voice, black jogging pants with red stripes. So the city is outraged at such a crime, and so the police conduct their investigation. You write that Charles is in the hospital. He writes heartfelt eulogy for because he can't attend the funeral.
I'm sure he had this all planned and won. During this time period from October until January, when Chiles stood was eventually found out. The Boston police were flooding the minority neighborhoods of Boston at the time, Mission Hill, Jamaica, Planes, Roxbury, and they were just doing typical stopping frisks. They made one arrest of one person, but they didn't have enough evidence, so they let him go. And they just could not find someone.
You write that they arrest at a homeless man, however, squatting in a vacant building, and they found the black jogging suit in a pan of water, and he had a raspy voice, so he fits somewhat you say he was soon released.
Yeah, that's correct. There was nothing more than circumstantial evidence, and Boston police further investigated that individual and determined it wasn't he who did the murder.
Now, on December twenty eighth, Charles Stewart is in has a lineup in front of him. He identifies a person named Willy Bennett. Tell us about this lineup and who Willy Bennett is.
Willie Bennett had previously been in jail for shooting the Boston cop. He was out on parole, and I think that Stuart had some full knowledge of who Willy Bennett was. So we picked them and Boston Police said, okay, we are going to arrest him and we have man, and they were Boston. Spoke to a friend of mine who was a Boston police officer at the time, and he told me that they were really happy to get Willie Bennett off the streets.
You're right that only five days later though, six days later, as you write, the shoe drops and Matthew Stewart comes forward.
What does he have to tell police? Matthew Stuart is Charles Stuart's brother, and Matthew Stuart was the person that who met Chiles Stuart. After Charles shot his wife and then himself in the stomach, and he gave Matthew Childs, gave Matthew the gun and his wife's pocket book, and Matthew got rid of those. He threw it off a bridge in Revere, both the pocketbook and the gun, how and he kept his mouth shut all the time during
the investigation until Willie Bennett was arrested. And Matthew had a case of the conscience, of a conscience, and he said to Boston police, you've arrested the wrong man. It was my brother who did it, and this is what happened. So they they ended up putting out a warrant for a Stuart's arrest.
Now, as you say, too, the black community now with this knowledge, is outraged, understandably, So yeah, hundreds of blacks were harassed and demean What happens the next day they find Charles Stuart's abandoned on the lower deck of the Tobin Bridge, which goes over the Mystic River. He left a suicide note. It was later confirmed that it was his handwriting. They did a search of the Mystic River and Boston Harbor and they found his body and it was labeled.
As a suicide. But there's a little bit of a twist to that.
And what's that twist. There's a rumor that you read about.
Yet saw it on a number of websites and the friends I spoken to in Boston police confirmed the rumor, and they were divided as to whether it really happened. Supposedly, Stuart's wife's in laws owned a sub shop in the Boston area and they were somewhat connect the rum We're on the streets and a number of websites said that Stuart's wife's Stuart's father in law contacted some wise guys. They broke into Charles Stuart's apartment, made them write the
suicide note, then drowned them in the toilet bowl. They then took chiles in the body of Charles Stuart in his car to the Tobin Bridge and threw them over the bridge. From what I was able to glean on the car in this report and the autopsy of child Stuart, there was water in the lungs, but it was never tested as to whether it was fresh water that would be present in the toilet bowl or the brackish water of the Mystic River. So that rumor is still pervasive today.
Well, now, in terms for this story here, there are people that the police authorities that look into the background of this case to look for motives for Charles Stewart specifically. So what do they find in terms of some very interesting things that we will use to compare and other people will used to compare the Charles Stewart case to the Robert Anderson case later.
The first one was he was allegedly having an affayre with a woman who worked for him in the furrier shop. Child. Stewart was the manager, not the owner, of the furious shop, and he had alling a gun and that was the gun he used to kill his wife and shoot himself in the stomach. When this alleged affair came out and the woman who Stuart was supposedly having the affair with denied and he said we were just good friends and
nothing ever happened. Right and again, like Anderson, Stewart was obsessed with money and he didn't want to have his wife lose that income while she was caring for the baby. We mentioned too that he had stolen the gun from the furriers. That's correct, Yes, he had, he did steal the gun.
Okay, now you take us to January in nineteen ninety two. Just before that, you write that police recruits would study this case, and this made international news in certain places.
And you say that.
Police recruits were not the only ones who studied the Stewart murder case.
Is what you write.
You say, Robert Anderson took note Fred Riol, the lead detective from Salem, New Hampshire, who assisted Lawrence Police where the murder happened, in his interviews and talking with Anderson, and he also talked to some friends of Anderson, and he thought that Anderson had studied the child Stuart murder case and he would not make the mistakes that Chiles Stewart did, such as confining and brother. But they felt Fred Riahl felt that, yep, this guy studied Stuart, the
Stewart case, and he copied the murder. You take us to January nineteen ninety two and Wendy Jack and you say that they are friends with Bob and Amy Anderson since student teaching days in nineteen seventy five, and Bob was entrusted to check on their place while they were on vacation. He had a key to their house. What had Wendy Jack forgotten about in that house.
Her father was living with him and he died. He was elderly, he was ninety one, I believe, And when she was going through his belongings in his room in that house, she never knew about the twenty five caliber gun. And that was the gun that Anderson used to shoot his wife, amongst doing other things to her, actually not shoot his wife. He ended up leaving the gun there at the murdersing you take.
Us in this chapter you call the twenty four Days of Christmas. This is October to November nineteen ninety three, and Bob Anderson, as the ServiceMaster company director, gets an angry call from a customer about a job not done well enough. Tell us about his visit to this apartment who he meets and this major character in this story.
The customer's name's Backavoy, and they had complained that his company, serf Pro at the time Serfmasters, did a cleaning of their apartment, but there were still some stains left in it.
So Anderson went there, knocked on the door, and the daughter answered him, and right from the get go, who was totally infatuated with her, he said he would send his best team to clean the apartment all over again to take care of the stains that were left behind, which he did, which they did, and he eventually asked her out to lunch.
At lunch, he got some information about her financial situation, but also that she was a very young and attractive woman, and he talked to and offered.
Her a job. What was this job that he described. She was a single parent and she was living there with her parents, and the parents would baby, said the child. When she worked. She had a small retail job. Anderson offered her a position in his company as marketing and paid her fair amount of money at that time, and her job was took accompany him when he went to see clients. He asked her to dress in a very sexy manner with shot skirts high heels, because he said
that sex cells and that was her job. And she testified later on in court she never did. She didn't have any qualifications for that, and she never did anything more than go with Anderson to see clients and then sit in provocative manners. When Anderson was talking to clients, one of his trusted employees he introduce is Bill Prince. Who is Bill Prince in relation to Robert Anderson and he's part of the cleanup crew. Bill was a former student of Anderson, and he went into the Marines after
high school. When he came out, he sought out Anderson. Anderson was one of his favorite teachers. The boys in school loved him, the girls there were a lot of mixed feelings. Supposedly, what he did to Cindy McGregor he had done to one or two other girls, but they never came forward until he was arrested later on for the murder of his wife. But Prince was offered a job by Anderson, and he turned out to be one of his best workers.
This idea that he introduces Pam McAvoy to his twenty four Days of Christmas. He had said to her that he had this introduced, this plan to give gifts to his wife and his child from December first to December twenty fourth, and so he said he was going to do the same with her. What kind of gifts are we talking about here?
Exactly? He gave her gifts anywhere from no Teddy beer to expensive jewelry, to taking her out for dinner in Boston and then going to see a play afterwards. He spent a lot of money on her.
Amy became aware of this and questioned him and was concerned about the relationship.
What did he say this relationship was. He said that the relationship was totally platonic, nothing more than employer employee, and he felt really bad for her because she was real a struggling mom and just he was trying to do his good deed for the day.
Anderson has a bookkeeper and family friend, and she notices the additional credit charges recently and his mood changes. She says he was more brooding. She asked him where the new money in the account was coming from. What was his answer to her? He said, essentially was you got to spend money to make money. We're doing a lot of marketing, We're going on business trips. He had taken Tim McAvoy to a trip down to Worcester where they stayed for a night, but they did there that night
is still up to debate. Like Charles Stewart's alleged affair, Pam denied that they ever had any connal.
Knowledge of each other. Talking to the investigators in the case both in Lawrence and Salem. This split as to whether they were actually have an affair. It was just platonic.
Now another character is introduced to Judge Bob Marshall. He's the president of the local Kawana's Club. He's known Robert Anderson for about ten years, but he has no choice in his mind, but the call police.
What's this all about?
Uh?
Well, when Bob Marshall, who was well loved by Salem police and everyone else in Salem, he was the president of the Kawana's Club and noticed those fifty thousand dollars missing that couldn't be accounted for. Fred Rilt got involved in the case and long behold, Robert Anderson was the treasurer of the Kiwana's clubs. So what they felt very strongly, and Fred said he had more than enough evidence to issue a warrant and get a conviction of Robert Anderson
for embezzling that fifty thousand dollars from the corners. But Judge Massill chose not to go forward. Instead, Anderson was forced to leave the corners and they didn't They the Kowaners didn't want to go forward because that would give them a very bad name and they felt that it would hurt contributions. And I can't speak highly enough about the Corners in general, and particularly in Sale in New Hampshire.
They do really good work with a lot of donations to charity, but they didn't charge him, and Anderson got away supposedly with fifty thousand dollars that he was supposed to pay back. That was an agreement he made with Judge Marshall that he would pay back the money, but circumstances eventually prevented that. You write that.
Meanwhile, in Mithune, Massachusetts, there's some frozen pipes are especially good for winter and the service mass in Robert Anderson's business, and he goes to a door for somebody that has made a call that he's done some work. Francesca Lopez answers the door. Tell us about his interaction with Francesca Lopez.
Well, this goes back to what I said earlier that the best judge of future behavior is past behavior. Frances He goes into the family house and sees Francisco Lopez. She's seventeen years old, and he is once again totally enamored by her, and he offers her a position as a marketing specialist. That's what he called it. I'm not getting specialist. He ends up fixing, cleaning everything. He sends a crew in. He came in himself and he asks Francesca, I'll give you a fair amount of money again and
could you accompany me. I have this client in Londonderry, Londonderry, New Hampshire, and you can see what the job entails. Can you very can you dress very sexy? Wear a short skirt, high heels and plunging neckline. So they end up going to Londonderry. She agrees to this. They talked to a client there and Anderson then tells Lopez, all right,
I'll bring it back to your family home. And allegedly what he did was molest her in the van, inlested her the man, she pushed him off, ran in and told her parents who the father wanted to kill Anderson. So the very next day, like the mcgregors, the Lopezes went to the local police station, but doing mass and spoke to Peter Rainl who's a good friend of mine,
very good detective. And Peter took up the case and they had a warrant for Anderson's arrest that was eventually served in Sale, New Hampshire, with the summons to appear in court and again future behavior and past behavior. Anderson went to one of his employees, a female, and said, Hey, listen, my wife's going to divorce me. This didn't happen. This girl is making allegations that never happened. I need you to say you were in the back seat of the van and say that this never happened.
Now, how do police react when they learned that this Linda Stevens. Are they suspicious and how do they act?
Accordingly? They're very suspicious. They are very suspicious. They feel that this didn't happen. At some point, detective Phillips from Salem had got in touch with Pete Reno. There was a lot of cross border work amongst the detectives in
doing mass in Salem, New Hampshire. They border each other and Phillips had told Reino about what had happened in nineteen eighty four with McGregor, and they play ended up playing good cop, bad cop and Anderson's employees employee eventually admitted that, yeah, this is what Robert Anderson did, and he pretty much forced me to lie for him. He's my boss and I didn't want to lose my job.
Absolutely, so they don't involve her in this. You write that February February eleventh, Unlike in nineteen eighty four, Amy Anderson is very upset and not very supportive at all, and she was talking now about divorce and so over the next two weeks, you say, you're right that he tries to smooth over relations with his wife. But by the end of February, however, she's still considered divorced. You know,
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It's the best value now you write then. In January twenty four, nineteen ninety four, another important character in this story, Rebecca O'Brien calls and she's not happy with service Master job done a few days previous, and they had moved in and out of this house when this cleanup was going on by Service Master. What did she notice after the visit regarding her husband's property.
I'm noimeter gun was listen. Jeez, I wonder how that happened, right?
And also you write that there was a burglary reported at Industrial Park and security guard didn't see anything except he thought he saw a Service Master van, but he wasn't quite sure.
That is correct. It was cleaning equipment was stolen, and they really didn't have any suspects outside of that maybe elusive service Master van.
You take us now to a very important date February twenty fifth, nineteen ninety four and the site of the Shahmat Bank and the manager Judis Smith, what's going on there with Robert Anderson.
It was a cold winter and she had burrist pipes in the cellar and so she needed Anderson's crew to come in and clean everything up.
There was an issue where a restaurant that had gone out of business was next door at Cherry and Webb, and there was a heating and cooling ducts were connected between the buildings. Tell us what happens with Robert Anderson and Paul Medola at this bank all.
Medola is the custodian, and Anderson said, hmm, there's a dust problem and sham at back and Cherry and Webb shared the same ventilation system, so could Medola let me? And he's saying this to the bank manager and I just want to check everything out. So they end up going into a boiler room. Anderson is there alone Mendola Mandola is doing other custodio things, and eventually they leave the building and Anderson says, oh, dammit, I forgot one
of my tools. Mandola gives him a key to the Cherry and Webb's building, and Anderson said to him, Okay, I'll give this to the bank manager when I'm done, but he never did that, so he ended up having the key to Cherry and Webbs. You're right there.
That night, Bob and Amy Anderson go out to meet their good friends, longtime friends, Ray Corlis and his wife Julie at a restaurant, and they seem to be a happy couple. Julie, though, ever see something amiss at the end of the night.
Yeah, she felt that all was not well in Paradise and she related this to her husband. Her husband was the principle of Salem High at the time, again very well respected, and he said, ah, now everything's fine, and they had he had no idea what was coming down the road.
You're right of February twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four.
It's six fifty four pm and.
The Lawrence Police Department dispatch your answers. She's asked, what's the matter? What kind of respons does you get on the line?
And from who?
It is?
A frantic male voice. That male voice is Robert Anderson, and he's saying, my wife has been killed. She whereby She's in the van behind the shah Met pocin lot. Send help. I love my wife. She's hurt real bad.
Who was there and who do they speak to? And what is the condition? Obviously of Amy Anderson.
Patrolman hat the wall was right around the corner in the police station. The police station and the fire station were about a block and a half from the Shaman back. They get there, it starts snowing lightly and Walla just calls that help. We've had a very brutal murder. Amy Anderson was in the driver's seat of the van. She was stabbed multiple times with the blunt object. It turned out to be a Phillips screwdriver, and she had some very serious slashes on her head. It was amazing that
she made it to the hospital alive. She made it through the night waller radios and that Okay, we've got a serious murder here. It's brutal, and I need detectives. Brian Barochus is the first detective on the scene, and the first thing he notices is the only tracks in the snow. And again it was a very light snow. The only tracks of the snow were the tracks leading from and to the van, no other tracks outside of Patrolman Wallace Bryan was also on the station and he
had gotten there before the ambulance came. Unfortunately, he didn't take any pictures of that.
So they also speak to William Prince, and they also get Robert Anderson's story of events. What is the difference in those stories or the similarities.
William Prince is downstairs with another employee there cleaning, and he testified that Anderson had asked Robert Anderson asked Amy to go buy some coffee and everything, some refreshments for the crew. But the crew said, oh no, we don't need it. We're all going to be here about an hour and a half. Oh no, no, we need it. And I'm going to walk Amy out to the van. And Amy said there is no need to The van's
just outside the back door. And Anderson said, hey, this is Lawrence and Lawrence is very violent, which they were having a state of serious crimes. Lawrence does have a high crime rate. So he said he was going to walk her out to the van. He came back in twenty minutes later. They're asking she is, where's Amy? She was just supposed to go right down the road. Anderson says, let me go all back and check. And that's when he comes screaming back into the bank saying Amy's been hurt.
She's hurt, real bad. I've got to call the police. And right from the get go he blamed it on the violence of Lawrence. How did police conduct their investigation? And knowing that Robert Anderson is their likely suspect in this, they interview everyone there and they can't find any tracks anywhere in the snow that's on the sidewalk or anywhere else at the time. They also noticed some tracks leading into the cherry and web building again that was adjacent
to the Charma bank. However, that didn't register right away. So now they want to interview Anderson. Amy had died through the night. It was amazing she lived that one. She lived till six point thirty the next morning, and they asked to interview Anderson. So he comes into the police station the following day at eight o'clock in the morning.
Now they're looking for three different weapons, and when they do the autopsy, it is revealed the extent of this angry, more than angry assault on this woman. So tell us about the injuries that were inflicted by these three different weapons.
They had some serious slashes and the scalp that went down to the bone. There were puncture mocks in her face and in her shoulders, and it wasn't caused by a knife, these punch mocks. It was by a round blunt instrument, similar to say a screwdriver, whether it be a straight or a Phillips screwdriver. And they couldn't find the murder weapons at the time. They decide to make an arrest.
There is a wake land for Amy and a funeral. When did they decide to make an arrest on Robert Anderson.
It was that Thursday night at the wake. The funeral was going to be the next day, and both sale and police and Lawrence police are going to wait. They're putting surveillance on Anderson and they're going to wait till after the wake. However, Amy Anderson was loved. It's the middle of winter and the line is off the door into the pocketing lot and down the street. There was a about an hour and twenty minute wait, so it was a get nine thirty. The weight was supposed to
end at nine, but they prolonged the hours. The funeral home prolonged the hours, and they decided to just go in and arrest Anderson. And again there was Salem Police. Detective Phillips was there, and they went in and informed Anderson that he was under arrest for the murder of his wife. And Anderson said, really, you had to do it now, now, you couldn't wait till after the funeral.
Phillips looked them squeally in the eye and said, Robert, if it wasn't for you, there wouldn't be awakened funeral and At that point, Amy's brother, who never really liked his brother in law, lunched for Anderson and he was held back by police who were there, and they put the handcuffs on Anderson watched them out of the station. And as he's being marched out of the station, the principal, who had dinner with the Andersons, call Us, said to one of the detectives, Fred riol Fred, I hope you
know what you're doing. And fred just stopped and looked at Carlus and said, you know, when it comes to first degree murder, I always know what I'm doing.
Yeah, that Jesus has an opportunity to stop to hear these messages.
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Now he is set to go to trial.
The issues that are very important is that a blood spatter expert, Morgan Dexter dozen analysis of the jacket and despite him cradling his wife's head and blood being on the jacket, you talk about three different types of stains, impact stain, transfer stain, and a projected impact stain, them all being different and all basically being damning testimony at this trial.
With this analysis of that jacket, that's correct. What she testified, which was very damning evidence, was that when you shab someone, there's going to be blood spatter, and that blood spatter is going to come back on the person who did the stabbing, particularly if it's a blunt instrument more so than say a knife with a shot point. And what this spatter looks like is a blob with a little tail at the end, and that is exactly what Anderson
had on his jacket. That evidence was overwhelming, and it was obviously it turned out to be Amy's blood.
Very interesting when there, it's very important that they find the murder weapons themselves. They go to visit Judas Myth at j Sean mcbank and she hadn't found a red police had found murder weapons. And she was asked if she was ever given back the key to the Cherry and Web store. No, So they eventually led detectives. Jack McDonald from Lawrence was the lead detective. They led him back into the store, into the Cherry and Web building and the custodian medolo said, hey, listen, he spent a
lot of time in the boiler room. So they go into the boiler room.
They're looking around the high ceilings, ten foot high ceilings. It's dropped ceiling and one of the other detectives notices a brown stain on the floor. And that's what happens to blood when it coagulates and drives. It's a brown as shred he noticed. He looks up and notices that one of the ceiling tiles is askew. They find a ladder. He goes up, and that's where they found the murder weapons. So evidently, after Anderson had killed his wife, he went
to the cherry and web store. Those were the footres in the snow and deposited the weapons in the ceiling. And those weapons had fingerprints. There was the twenty five caliber there also that had as much fingerprint and had Amy's blood. So Amy's blood on the murder weapons, Anderson's fingerprints. They got him.
You were asked by fred Riohl to look at this case because of your background. Tell us about your background that comes into play in this, and also tell us about this the assets being tied up.
Give us this strategy that you had. Yeah, my background is I have two master's degrees, one in business another one in economics, and I was working in the business world and got tired of the business world became a carp But I also started teaching college economics and finance classes, particularly accounting. So I said to Freddie, hey, listen, he's going to be spending a ton of money on a team of lawyers. We have to find out where all his accounts are and we have to freeze those accounts
so he doesn't have access to that money. Again, I was teaching accounting. We ended up looking at Anderson's books. It was easy to confirm that the fifty thousand dollars he had previously stolen from the Kuwanas went into his checking account. The Anderson family lawyer, Jimmy Coppernito, worked his ass off. They found out where his assets were and they also found some safety deposit boxes. We had stashed away a lot of money and jewelry, and they froze
all of those assets. So Anderson didn't have access to any of the money that he so valued so much, and he had to get a public defender. Now take us to the trial.
He has a competent attorney named Carney, and they have an idea to vigorously defend him. The prosecutor is mccollery, and he has eight things the significant and evidence to be able to convict this person first degree murder, life with no parole. What are the key things that happened at this trial in terms of Robert Anderson testifying, Connie was probably one of the best trial.
Lawyers in Massachusetts at the time, and he did the case for free. He did pro bono, as they like to call it. I suspect he wanted to get the publicity, which he did, And what you typically do in a murder case is you tried to put the blame on someone else, and that's exactly what they tried to do here. They tried to put the blame on William Prince, Anderson's former student and employee, who was his best worker. And they attempted to do that.
They tried to put reasonable doubt that William Prince could have had the opportunity to kill Amy, and then they had a kind of sketchy motive why.
He might do that. He was jealous, Yeah, the motive was that he was infatuated with Amy and she had spurned him. But there was absolutely no evidence to that effect, none whatsoever. He was always very respectful. As a matter of fact, after Amy died, he had gone to the house to pay his respects and was just there for a little while before he left, talking about Prince and finding out a little bit about his background. Great guy, great guy.
He tried to say that that William Prince had come to the house the night of the wake and came in the house, saw him in the kitchen, and then a bloody key that was found later by Amy's sister was planted by William Prince, and he disputed this at trial on the stand and said he hadn't even crossed the threshold of that house that night.
That's correct. I mean, he never came further than the threshold. You know, he was invited in the house. But that was the key that was found by Amy's sister. I believe he was found in a flower pot that Anderson hit and it had a bloody print on it. And they were able to get a postial print out of the key, but could have been and since print, but they didn't have the eight to twelve points of reference
that you needed. They just had a few. But there was no doubt in an investigated his mind that Robert Anderson had stashed the key there.
It's interesting too that in the very first trial of the sexual assault he was brazen enough to take the stand in his own defense, and at this he insisted to take the stand, which is even more unusual, and they announced it early on, which is again unusual that he would be taking the stand.
Yeah, that's correct again, very arrogant, very arrogant. He found if you walk into the room, he felt that he was always the smartest person in the room.
It was a embarrassing I guess for him certainly that Pam mclavoy also testified and said some damning things about him personally and legally.
Yeah, that's correct you. No, he said that she said that he was wanted to have more in the real life relationship, that she was willing to give and it just wasn't going to happen. Wasn't going to happen. He also said that he was going to divorce his wife, but that was one of the things he was worried about, was that if she did divorce him, he would lose half his assets at the very least. It didn't take long once the deliberations Carney was said by the prosecutor
that Carney gave a fantastic closing argument. However, it only took two hours and forty minutes for the jury to make the decision. Yes, it was a really quick decision. There was no doubt in any of the jury's mind that he was guilty. So what was the verdict, the sentence? Where's he the Verot was guilty life without parole, and Robert Aniston is still in jail to this day and his appeals were upheld, so.
He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison where he belongs. I want to thank you very much for coming on and talking about this book, Murder Outside the back Door, the true story of the murder of a popular Salem, New Hampshire teacher by her husband. The murder labeled as a Carls Stewart copycat. Thank you very much for this interview.
For John.
For people that might want to take a look at your other work, where could they go?
All my books on Amazon. There is Murder at the Front Door, about a off duty Hampton, New Hampshire police officer who had a thirteen year grudge against his neighbor and killed him. And Murder by the Bathhouse Door, the story of three boys who incessantly watched the movie Scream Yes and wanted to see what it was like to kill people killed two girls, which they did at a park in Salem, New Hampshire, and again they are available on Amazon.
Thank you very much, John Tomasi. Murder Outside the back Door, the true story of the murder of a popular Salem, New Hampshire teacher by her husband. The murder labeled as a Charles Stewart copycat. Thank you very much for this interview and you have a great evening and good night, Thanks Dan, and always appreciate being here and it's fun. Always a great pleasure speaking with you. Thank you, John, Bye, damn tonight.